BA cabin crew vote to strike

More than 96% of British Airways cabin crew have voted in favour of strike action in a dispute over pay grading, sick leave and onboard staffing levels.

In a ballot by union leaders 96.1% voted to strike. The postal ballot received a turnout of 80% and 8,132 of staff voted in favour of strike action while 330 voted against.

Jack Dromey, T&G deputy general secretary, said: "BA cabin crew have voted to say the airline has gone too far. BA must rebuild the trust of its cabin crew by negotiating rather than imposing change and by listening to its staff rather than riding roughshod over their concerns.

"We will now meet with the BA managers and say we believe a new settlement is needed which recognises the strength of feeling of our members but also the strength of their concerns."

BA management is today expected to be in crisis talks with union leaders to try to prevent industrial action. A spokesperson for BA, said: "We are disappointed by the T&G’s threat of what would be completely unnecessary industrial action. The union says that one of its key concerns is pensions – yet we have just concluded 16 months of talks by accepting a proposal put forward by the T&G and our other unions. On that basis alone, we believe the T&G should pause to reflect before threatening the travel plans of our customers and their families."

Separately, the GMB union is likely to ballot its members over BA’s proposals to address its £2.1bn pensions deficit which would mean staff retiring at a later age.